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Wednesday, February 25, 2009

What, No Suitable Fried Chicken Joke?!

Dean Grose, the mayor of Los Alamitos, CA, sent out an e-mail with the subject, "No Easter Egg Hunt This Year." Said e-mail included a picture of what the alternative celebration would be:

A watermelon hunt!! Get it?

Keyanus Price, a local black businesswoman who received the e-mail, called Grose out on his racism and demanded an apology. I'll bet you can guess what he said, right?

He don't know nothin' bout no racism! From the article linked above:

[Grose] said he was unaware of the racial stereotype that black people like watermelons.

As Renee said, maybe it was accidental that he chose watermelons instead of pumpkins or something.

His response was full of other tired lines, too. He waxed unpoetically about his lack of intent to offend. Then there was,

"Bottom line is, we laugh at things and I didn't see this in the same light that she did," Grose told the AP.

That translates, roughly, to either "She's too sensitive!" or "She was looking to be offended!" And

"It wasn't sent to offend her personally—or anyone—from the standpoint of the African-American race,"

, which read to me like, "I know the singular, monolithic standpoint of the African American race and this wasn't offensive. Why, pretty soon, I'll pull out my black friend who wasn't the least offended by it!"

And I have to say - it almost feels like running away, to me, and because of that, it bugs me. Like, rather than the big drama of "angry black people made me leave my job!" you couldn't have just not been such an unapologetically racist jerk in the first place? "Goodbye mayoral position, hello everybody-gets-off-my-back-finally." It aggravates me.